CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Former fashion jewelry saleswoman Rebecca Gonzales and former Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson have one thing in common: J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) no longer employs either.

The similarity ends there. Johnson, 54, got a compensation package worth 1,795 times the average wage and benefits of a U.S. department store worker when he was hired in November 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gonzales’s hourly wage was $8.30 that year.

Across the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of companies, the average multiple of CEO compensation to that of rank-and-file workers is 204, up 20 percent since 2009, the data show. The numbers are based on industry-specific estimates for worker compensation.

Almost three years after Congress ordered public companies to reveal actual CEO-to-worker pay ratios under the Dodd-Frank law, the numbers remain unknown. As the Occupy Wall Street movement and 2012 election made income inequality a social flashpoint, mandatory disclosure of the ratios remained bottled up at the Securities and Exchange Commission, which hasn’t yet drawn up the rules to implement it. Some of America’s biggest companies are lobbying against the requirement. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-30/ceo-pay-1-795-to-1-multiple-of-workers-skirts-law-as-sec-delays.html

[antigop]

1. thanks, marmar. K&R nt

[AndyA]

2. So, the Securities and Exchange Commission can't draw up rules in three years?

Sounds like there's more pressure to do nothing than there is to comply with the law. No surprise that big corporations are lobbying against the requirement to reveal CEO-to-worker pay ratios, as most are completely out of line.

Make no mistake about it, ALL of us pay more for EVERYTHING due to these excessive executive salaries. As we've seen, in many instances, the company isn't profitable under the leadership of these executives, yet the company states it must pay high salaries in order to get and retain the best people.

If the company isn't profitable, they don't have the best people running it. If the company is profitable, it's likely consumers are paying far more for things than they should be, in order to cover executive costs.